Doug French and the Legacy of Paul Bernardo

On Friday, the family of Doug French will lay their patriarch to rest in the picturesque Memorial Gardens in Fonthill, Ontario. Mr. French died on Sunday at the age of 92. He was the husband of Donna for 53 years, and raised five children in my hometown of St. Catharines after burying his teenaged daughter Kristen French.

Kristen, as anyone of a certain age in that town remembers, was famously held captive and murdered by Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka after she was abducted on her way home from school on an Easter weekend in 1992. The pair, nicknamed the Barbie and Ken murderers, also took the lives of teen Leslie Mahaffy and Karla’s youngest sister.

Kristen would have been 47 today. The Frenchs would have celebrated many joyous occasions with Kristen: marriage and family, undoubtedly graduation and a career. Instead, they have had to spend their days fighting to keep Bernardo in jail. Crushingly, they lost the battle to keep Karla behind bars. Today she lives in Quebec under an alias, as a wife and mother, and reportedly still volunteers at local schools.

The profound sadness of the death of Doug French hit me today as I thought of my own family who have spent eight years fighting for justice in the murder of my cousin Ashley Simpson, who died at the hands of her boyfriend. I’ve thought about the French family and their own three decade battle with the demon Paul Bernardo. Even though Bernardo was convicted and sent to jail so many years ago, his scent lingers in the air, as he tries to get parole or at least, moved out of maximum security.

This most recent battle took place before a parliamentary committee just last year after Corrections Canada and the Parole Board of Canada decided to move Bernardo to a medium security institution. For five years, the family was denied access to Bernardo’s records to prepare for his hearing. Getting access to his records was termed “a total invasion” of the privacy of the offender, according to a Federal Appeal Board.

It was evident to everyone with a heart that his rights trumped the rights of parents of a murdered child.

Sounds familiar.

My cousins have had their own battles with the criminal justice system, first to light a fire under the RCMP to get them to open Ashley’s case five years ago. (Due to public pressure, the RCMP opened a cold case investigation three years ago leading to the arrest and conviction of Ashley’s former boyfriend, Derek Favell.)

Now, eight years after Ashley’s death, they are forced to endure month after month of delays in Favell’s sentencing because of his right to a Gladue report. Under the Gladue principles anyone identifying as an indigenous person has the right to an investigation into whether their background played a part in their actions.

Gladue reports take months to complete, and have added another six months of suffering to John and Cindy and their families. As they mark the eighth anniversary of her death on April 27, and the third year of Derek’s conviction, they are now looking at another two months until sentencing — when they can face her killer, read their victim impact statements, and watch the handcuffs be secured around his wrists.

Until next time.

Doug French’s death is a reminder to us that the ordeal for our family is just beginning. Derek Favell is only in his early 40s. There are many probation appeals ahead.

The agony isn’t over for the French family, either. Paul Bernardo is only 59 year old and has lots of torture time ahead for Kristen’s family ahead.

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